PNP nabs suspect in kidnapping of US vlogger Elliot Eastman 

The Philippine National Police Regional Office 9 arrested the alleged mastermind behind the abduction of Mindanao-based American vlogger Elliot Eastman, whom one of the suspects believes may be dead. 

According to the report of Super Radyo dzBB’s Glen Juego on Thursday, the regional police office said the suspect was nabbed through an arrest warrant for kidnapping and serious illegal detention charges. 

The suspect was believed to be the one who plotted the kidnapping of Eastman on October 17 last year in Zamboanga del Norte. He was arrested last Tuesday afternoon, January 7 at the boundary of a sea in Zamboanga City and Basilan Strait. 

In December, the PNP said one of the suspects claimed that Eastman died in the banca, and that the abductors threw his body into the sea.

Meanwhile, three people allegedly linked to his kidnapping were killed in an encounter in Kabasalan, Zamboanga Sibugay. The suspects were identified as Mursid Ahod, Abdul Sahibad, and Fahad Sahibad.

Further, kidnapping and serious illegal detention complaints have been filed against the other suspects, with three of them already in police custody.

Before he went missing, Eastman said in his vlogs that there were threats to his life and to his family. He noted in one of his videos that people around them “don’t really like” him and “they want bad things to happen” to him. —Vince Angelo Ferreras/LDF, GMA Integrated News